starting new churches
Holidays are over, back to work!

I continue to learn from and be inspired by Guy Muse and his team in Guayaquil, Ecuador. They have seen around 250 churches planted since 2000, and despite the fact that around half of these no longer meet, they have learnt some key lessons.

Here are the Guiding Values of "La Iglesia en Tu Casa" (LIETC)

1.) LIETC is built upon a foundation of prayer, which is the most important work in which we are engaged. (Luke 10:2)

2.) LIETC is built upon the idea of "mobilizing the laity." The laity is empowered to go and do tasks traditionally assigned only to trained professional clergy. (Eph.4:11-12, 1 Pet.2:9-10)

3.) LIETC is built upon the concept of taking the church to where the people are, rather than bringing the people to the church. (Matt.28:18-20, Luke 10:3)

4.) LIETC crosses denominational lines and works with Great Commission Christians to plant New Testament churches. (Eph.4:4-6)

5.) LIETC depends on God to provide the workers, free of recruitment or manipulation. (Luke 10:2)

6.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that women are likewise called to plant churches. (Matthew 28:18-20)

7.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that it is Christ's responsibility to build His church, not ours (Mt. 16:18). Our job is the Great Commission, his to build His Church.

8.) LIETC is built upon an understanding that the missionary task is primarily one of praying, modeling, teaching, training, and mentoring. (Eph.4:11-12)

9.) LIETC is built upon the strategic use of locally available and reproducible communication media (radio, brochures, videos, copies, letters, tracts, cassettes, Bibles). We don't use anything or bring in from the outside anything that can't be done/reproduced locally by the people.

10.) LIETC is built upon the idea of church being more a "family gathering" held in a home setting, and less a "traditional church service." (1 Cor. 12-14, 14:26, Book of Acts)

11.) LIETC is built on the twin pillars of prayer and continuous lifestyle visitation/evangelism.

12.) LIETC is built upon the understanding that group multiplication is the focus, not addition to existing works. (Matthew-Luke, the “parables of the kingdom.”)

13.) LIETC belongs to God, and He can do with it (us) as He pleases. Change in the way things are done is on-going as God continues to open our eyes to his ways of building the Kingdom.

Here is the full article explaining in detail how they start new churches in Guyaquil.

posted by alexander @ 2:44 PM    4 comments

4 Comments:

I hesitate to engage first on what might be seen as a negative comment... but one of the things I am trying to run away from is formulas. Doesn't this sound a bit too much like the recipe?

By  David, at 9:09 PM  

Hi David, nice to 'meet' you. We PM's are so sensitive to formulaic stuff! One sniff & we're headin for the hills! That said, I don't think what Guy is capturing here is at all a formula, rather they are his observations of the actual values which underpin what God is doing there in Guayaquil.
There is only one formula (apart from: "if momma ain't happy then no one's happy!") - pray then obey.
I think one of the key things we, in the organic scene, have to recognise is the need for intentionality about what we are doing; Jesus and the apostles weren't afraid of being intentional. The tide coming against us will always pull us in the opposite direction unless we are strongly intentional about where we are headed. Finding this balance is a fine art and not easy so I'm willing to learn from anyone who has experience, especially someone who has seen 250 churches started in 5 years!

By  alexander, at 9:41 AM  

Forgive me, for posting back. I agree about intentionality. And that is something I/we need to get to grips with. I struggle with the 'obey' though. Not that we should - yes of course we should. But what? It almost implies that someone else has the answer and we should obey it.

I don't think that Guy is wrong in any way - he's doing what God has commissioned him for there. I'm just not convinced it's transportable. I have friends who were involved with the G12 thing in London who now have left disillusioned and facing a crisis of faith. I'm sure that G12 worked somewhere, just not there. I have friends in Burkina Faso who plant Churches by the dozen, yet when they come here they immediately see that it's very different.

Having said all that, it's really good to have a model, any model to look at and learn from and if its one that has worked then that has to be a plus! Also this is the first time I have been referred to as a PM! (Apart from being a Project Manager in my day job) It's like a right of passage! Also, I like your blog I keep coming back. Just decided to lurk no longer.

By  David, at 9:30 PM  

Not completely sure what you mean about obeying? "It almost implies that someone else has the answer and we should obey it." What I meant was that the answer for our particular context lies with God and the only way to access this is by praying.
I'm certainly not into 'models' either, or trying to emulate what someone else the other side of the world is doing - been around the block too many times for that!
We do indeed have a different context here and that's our challenge and why I'm keen to hear about what's going on particularly here in the UK or europe; we need some ground breakers to lead the way.

By  alexander, at 5:24 PM  

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the simple line of church planting
OK I confess all, I'm becoming a bit of a Guy Muse groupie! But I couldn't pass this one up, it's excellent. The M Blog:

"Bach was a master of what is called "line." No matter how a particular work is written or for how many instruments, you can always detect a sense of a line in the music... The sensation of a musical line is amazingly unbroken as the melodies pass from one register to another... The test is this - if you attempt to sing along, you will find it very easy to sing the line.

Does that not speak to our work as church planters? Amen? If you didn't catch it, read it again, sloooooowly.

What does "line" have to do with church planting?

In all that we do, there must be a clear and simple "line" that all can identify and hum along with. Maybe that is why the term "simple church" is better suited to what we do than house church. We need a simple melody that everyone can sing. There might be a lot of activity going on all around the melody, but all should be able to clearly hear the simple "line" and hum along. If they can't, what is being done is just too complicated. Some work needs to be done to further simplify."

He also has a post before this one about how the missionaries facilitated the local leaders as they studied, prayed and discussed the issue of whether women can baptise. These guys are Southern baptists btw!

posted by alexander @ 6:53 AM    0 comments

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rapidly growing people movements
Launching House Church movements.

This chapter from Rad Zdero's book, The Global House Church Movement (William Carey Library, 2004), suggests four strategic steps that may help house church trends in various countries become rapidly growing people movements.

1. Starting New House Churches
2. House Church Networks
3. The Role of Traditional Local Churches
4. The Role of Denominations and Missions Groups

posted by alexander @ 2:35 PM    0 comments

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women, clergy, laity?
I know I have been quoting a lot from these guys in Ecuador and this site is about reporting what is going on here in the UK, but I feel we can learn a lot from the issues that these folks are dealing with right now out there in the midst of a messy church planting movement. So with out apologies here is part of a post on the issue of women as 'pastors' and the clergy/laity divide. To go to the full post hit the link below. (Thanks to Guy Muse)

Full post here.

We had a group of volunteers from Stateside churches come down to help us plant house churches. Mornings were spent training them in our church planting methodology. Afternoons were spent with experienced national church planters in evangelism, discipleship, ministry, and in intentional church planting (at the end of the week five new outreach groups were begun, one became a church.)

After being immersed in the above for a couple of days, one of the Stateside volunteers asked:

"How could you as an IMB missionary sign the BF&M2000 and allow women to be out there planting churches?"

I welcomed the question and we began a dialogue more or less along the following lines...

"Well," I responded, "for starters I didn't read the part in the BF&M where it prohibits women from starting churches..."

The student clarified, "they are teaching and leading churches..."

"Yes", I replied, "and not only that, they are winning new people to the Lord, discipling them and starting new churches. They consider themselves 'ministers of the Gospel' just like you and me..."

"But the BF&M2000 says that only men may be pastors, you have women who are pastoring out there..."

"Very few of the house churches have leaders who are called 'pastors'. Leadership is usually shared amongst several individuals according to their spiritual gifts and talents...being the 'church planter' does not make them the 'pastor'..."


(To read more on this visit the full post using link above)

Of the 4-5 house churches we relate to where they did name an official 'pastor', all are suffering right now. Not because they called a pastor, but becuase the church looks to their named 'pastor' as the one to do all the work of teaching, leading, evangelism, preaching, etc.

Everyone of these pastors has come to me complaining that they cannot get the church to do the 'work of ministry'. They expect the pastor to do everything (sound familiar?) Quite a number have even left because their 'pastor' was not as dynamic and educated as some of the others around in the more established churches. The work of "being the church" has been replaced by "going to church."

posted by alexander @ 7:00 AM    0 comments

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vicente
I am so challenged (and encouraged) by stories like this one which came from Guy Muse down in Ecuador again.

Vicente was a two-month old believer when he first came to one of our church planting training seminars. He actually LIED TO US! saying he had been a Christian for six months, thinking we would not allow him in the training for being such a new convert. It wasn't until after he had begun his fourth outreach group that he shyly admitted to his secret! He used the basic knowledge he had been given and put it to immediate practical use. Today, four years later, Vicente has become a tent-making missionary in the steps of the apostle Paul. Two years ago he gave up everything he cherished and went out totally on faith into the a neighboring rural province (click here for the whole story.) Vicente has been there ever since evangelizing, discipling and planting churches. Last Wednesday night he shared with us that he believes the Lord wants him to personally share the Gospel with all 60,000 people in the rural region he is now living.

We pray for Vicente today, and ask Lord that you will bless him and that he will receive back a hundredfold of all that he has given up for the Kingdom.

posted by alexander @ 10:38 AM    0 comments

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